Of Things Unsaid
by NefariaBlack
Summary: Teddy knows that something's up with Delphini, and he sets to fix it how he best knows how: chocolate and pumpkin pasties. Side piece to Birds become Dragons that can be read as a one-shot. AU Delphini is not raised by the Rowles.


_Author's Notes: So a little side piece to go with Birds become Dragons that can be read as a one-shot._

 _If you are reading Birds become Dragons, this happens during Ch42. I managed to finagle this one into the forum's works._

 _If you are not reading Birds become Dragons, you should probably know that it's an AU where Delphini is raised by the Malfoys and that I've made Scorpius a little older than his canon version._

 _Anyway, prompts at the bottom. Please leave me a review before you go, and Happy Christmas everyone!_

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 **Of Things Unsaid**

 _Hogwarts, January 21_ _st_ _, 2012_

Teddy blew hot air out of his mouth and into his gloves, looking around, trying to find his cousin amongst the silhouettes on the shores of the Black Lake. Deformed by heavy coats or cloaks, scarves, gloves, and caps, everyone looked pretty much the same, against the almost blindingly white snow that covered the grounds. He had his ice skates in one hand, because he was determined to convince his cousin to take to the ice with him, but he was well aware that her voice had sounded a little too broken for that. So he had come to the lake bearing chocolate and pumpkin pasties, because that was certainly capable of fixing whatever might be wrong with Delphini.

He stopped walking for a moment, caressing Fang behind his ears. The large bloodhound liked following him around the grounds whenever Hagrid was busy with his creatures. He was rather old now, especially for a dog his size, but he could keep up with slow walks. The dog panted, creating large clouds before his snout, then barked twice and took off trotting, shuffling through the snow, towards a tall figure wrapped in a dark green cloak, with long curly tresses waving slightly in the wind, with white snow caught in black ringlets. Teddy smiled and sauntered off to meet them.

Delphini greeted him with a wide smile, though her green eyes carried a shadow. They would have hugged were they alone, but there were too many people watching for Delphini to be that familiar. Teddy nodded towards a tree stump with crooked roots emerging from the frozen ground around it, and they walked there silently, sitting down side by side. Fang sat at Delphini's feet, leaning his bulky head towards the glove covered hands that kept petting him absentmindedly. Teddy smiled at the way Delphini had moved her feet slightly away from the place where the dog's drool was pooling.

"So, before we tackle whatever seems to be bothering you, Miss Lestrange," he announced, earning himself a smirk, "you should know that I come bearing food." He got the chocolate bars and the pumpkin pasties out of his pockets, extending them to Delphini while he used a foot to keep Fang away from them.

Delphini took a chocolate bar and a pasty from him, setting them aside on the stump, then reaching for Fang's collar and pulling the immense dog away from Teddy's foot.

"Hold on, Fang! Hagrid gave me something for you, but you're not having chocolate," he reached in his pocket again, "because apparently that will kill you." He extended the dog something he suspected to be dried meat, but that he'd really rather not know.

They sat there eating for a while, comfortable in their silence, though they were surrounded by other student's conversations. Some were ice skating on the lake, and there was plenty of laughter coming from those, and endless banter between the fallen and the still upstanding.

"You've been a little off, Delphie, what's wrong?"

"I'm worried about Scorpius," she replied, buying some time with a bite off the pumpkin pasty, "and Astoria. There are so many rumours, Teddy, and that's not even the worst of it."

"I know, I've heard some of those rumours," he broke off a piece of chocolate for himself and offered her some, "but they didn't use to bother you this much before…"

"No, but Astoria is much worse now."

And with that, whatever was holding his cousin back suddenly gave way, and Delphini told him everything about Astoria. About the curse in Astoria's blood, and of how it had found new purchase in her bones after her miscarriage. About little Scorpius not sleeping, and being so worried that he didn't behave like a normal eight-year-old boy anymore. About the way she had been brewing him potions to help him sleep, because he had kept it secret from the rest of the family. About all the terrible things that kept going around about Astoria and Scorpius and all the times that Delphini had heard those things, and all the times that she had tried to shield Scorpius from the cutting edge of such words.

Teddy realized then just how very devastating it would be for that little boy to lose his mother. For he had no memory of hers, but that little boy had plenty, and he would miss her ten times over for it. For he had not truly known his mother, but she was always portrayed as good and kind, and that little boy would have no such luck. For he had heard plenty of stories about 'Dora' and 'Tonks' and 'Mum', but none so dark as the nicest version of the rumours people spread about Astoria Malfoy.

Delphini was hiding something else, he knew, some private hurt, some other thing that lurked in the dark, but he knew better than to ask. It was why they got along so easily. They knew each other far better than either would admit, and most things went unsaid between them because they did not need words. They had grown to find comfort in silence when they were together. They could sit by a frozen lake, eating chocolate and pumpkin pasties, in complete silence, and still be better for it, for they were better with each other.

"And I think that keeping me with them, at the Manor, isn't helping matters. Maybe they should send me away to live with someone else."

Delphini spoke the words with cold resolution, shattering the silence, and Teddy nearly choked. He coughed. Once, twice, then three times, until Delphini pointed her wand at his throat and murmured something. The pumpkin filling quit struggling then and was properly swallowed. Teddy needed a moment to regain his breath.

"Why would you think that?" His voice came out louder than he meant, and several students looked their way. The staring was enough to make Fang let go of his tough treat and look up, barking at the crowd just once. Teddy looked away, but Delphini raised her head, defiantly, and took the time to look in the eye of anyone that dared meet hers.

"I'm not a Malfoy, Teddy. I'm a Lestrange, remember?"

That didn't sound right to him, but he couldn't quite put his finger to what was amiss, and there was nothing but truth to it at the end of the day. Delphini was not a Malfoy, she had been taken by them to raise as their own after the war, much like he had been taken by his grandmother. The war had made orphans of them, they had no parents to raise them, or to walk them to the platform, or to cheer for them, or to scold them for being reckless. But they still had families.

"Names aren't really important, Delphie," he told her, with a crooked little smile, "there's more to family than a surname."

And that he knew to be the truth he held closest to his heart. There were no other Lupins for him, and yet his family stretched far beyond his grandmother. There were Potters, and Weasleys, and Grangers. There was even a Lestrange that he called family, sitting right there, next to him.

"But I'm different from them, and it may be dangerous for them to keep me around. And I'll make things harder for my family just by living with them."

Teddy felt the spark of her magic in the air around him. It had a way of silently snapping around her, disappearing after a single second of uncontrolled existence. He turned to look into her eyes, but she lowered them to the floor immediately. Still, Teddy saw the ruby red that had taken over her irises. Changing appearance when overwhelmed by emotion wasn't unusual for Metamorphmagus like them, but such lack of control was jarring in Delphini. It was not something that she allowed to happen.

Teddy knew then that Delphini would find it just as devastating to lose Astoria. This went much deeper than her worry for Scorpius. This unspoken pain, this injury carving itself slowly into Delphini's soul, was also about losing her for herself, about losing some of her own safety. There were rumours about Delphini as well, plenty of them, though not many students dared mention 'Mad Witch Lestrange' to her face, or her father, locked up in Azkaban.

"I'll help you, Delphie," he vowed to her, "I'll help you if that day ever comes. That's a promise. I'll help you with Scorpius, and I'll help you." He meant every single one of those words, lacing his gloved hand through hers, making her raise her eyes to his.

"I don't think you know what you're getting yourself into, Teddy," she said, keeping her green eyes in his brown ones, "this isn't a matter of 'if'. Astoria carries a blood curse, and it will take her. We just don't know the 'when'."

"Then when that day comes, I'll go to you and we'll find a way to protect Scorpius," he reassured her, omitting the part about how he fully intended to protect her, too, "and we'll come up with a plan together. We will beat the rumours Delphie, but you can't fight them. Not now, not then. Promise me you won't go out fighting everyone that voices them, Delphie."

She didn't speak, but she bowed her head in that regal way he had seen her do before. It made him think of the way hippogriffs bowed before those they deemed worthy. Their pact had been sealed. She would wait for him, she wouldn't go and fight the world alone, and that was all he needed to know.

He had meant to sit there with his cousin and Fang for a little longer, but his intentions were destroyed by a snowball that came flying out of nowhere. It smacked into the back of his head, white snow mixing with blue hair. Delphini shielded them both from the second one, but it wasn't until the third one hit Fang that they saw where the snowballs were coming from.

A bunch of students had started a proper snowball fight on the lake's shore, not far from them, and some had taken the opportunity to 'accidently' hit random peers with snowballs. Teddy was an easy target, with his blue hair and known playful disposition. Delphini, though, they had not been planning to hit, judging by the fearful looks being exchanged.

"We can fight them, right? Properly?"

He laughed at her delightfully wicked smile, tossing his head back and shaking the snow off his hair.

"What do you mean properly?"

"I mean using magic," she replied, waving her bone white wand in the air, shaping several snowballs before them, "is there any other proper way of snowball fighting at Hogwarts?" Her grin hid all the shadows that haunted her just a moment ago and she flicked her wrist nonchalantly, sending half a dozen snowballs soaring in a high arch. Teddy took his cue from her and pulled his wand out as well. They would get in trouble for this, but they'd probably get detention together, so they would be just fine.

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 _Author's Notes: Prompts and Challenges_

 _Advent Calendar Day 11 – Characters: Teddy Lupin_

 _Winter Funfair – Northern: Building an Igloo 1_ _st_ _layer_ _(word) devastating;_ _Eastern: Yule Log Burning G7 (colour) white_ _;_ _Southern: The Nice List_ _16\. Kristal - (food) Chocolate;_

 _365 Prompts Challenge – 142._ _Food - Pumpkin Pasty_

 _December Writing Club - Character Appreciation: 7._ _[Character/Animal] Fang (bloodhound); Disney Challenge Characters 9._ _Chip_ _\- Alt, write about Teddy Lupin; Book Club:_ _The Lady on the Grey:_ _(dialogue) "Names aren't really important", (plot point) helping make an important decision, (word) promise; Showtime 34. Contact: (colour) red; Count your Buttons Words 1. Snowball; Liza's Loves 7._ _Prompt: Write a friendship fic._

 _Word count – 1 866_


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